Flood defences

Government must act quicker

FLOODING HAS been the cause of vast economic damage and immeasurable personal heartache to Yorkshire in recent years, and so the launch of new defences for Hull this week is much to be welcomed.

The city suffered devastating damage in 2007 when 9,000 homes and businesses, as well as virtually all the city’s schools, were flooded forcing more than 6,000 people into temporary accommodation, some for more than a year.

It is to be hoped that the £120m being spent on flood defences to protect 40,000 homes in Hull over the next four years ensures that there is no repeat of such terrible devastation.

But a note of concern must be sounded that it has taken 10 years for these defences to be established. Even allowing for the detailed surveying, planning and engineering works that they involve, this seems like a very protracted timescale, especially since it will be several years yet before they are complete.

Successive governments have failed to provide adequate flood defences for large parts of Yorkshire. Eighteen months ago, it was the turn of West and North Yorkshire to go through the same ordeal that Hull had in 2007, and the Government’s response was less than adequate.

If, as seems likely, climate change is to result in more frequent bouts of torrential rainfall that increases the risk of flooding, the Government needs to be much faster in its response. It is good that Hull has its defences. Other areas of Yorkshire are still being kept waiting.